THE Wimbledon Championship remains the only major international tennis tournament not to offer equal pay to female and male winners.

The women's singles champion of this year's tournament will receive #625,000 compared with #655,000 for the men's champion while the ladies' doubles winners will get #205,280 compared with #220,690 for the men.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has called for an end to the gender pay gap in prize money so as to not "tarnish" the championship's international image and to reflect the society of equal opportunity the UK has become in the 21st century.

While Wimbledon and the significant prize money at stake is an entirely different and indeed distant world for most of us, in the furore over the prize money the spotlight is again focused on equal opportunities and equal pay, both in general terms and in respect of employment. It is a live issue that touches us all, whatever gender.

Are we yet a society of equal opportunity? Earlier this year the Women and Work Commission published its report into the gender pay gap which revealed that the gap is worse in Britain than anywhere else in Europe. This is despite the fact that the Equal Pay Act, and indeed Sex Discrimination Act, have been in operation for more than 30 years.

In Wales alone figures reveal that there is an average12% disparity between the hourly earnings of men and women. Women working part-time are even worse off, earning on average 31% less than men.

The Women and Work Commission made numerous recommendations including changing cultural assumptions from school years about the jobs women and men can do; overhauling education and careers advice to give women options beyond the "Five Cs" - catering, cashiering, caring, cleaning and clerical roles. The approach to widen the horizons of women and give them stronger female role models is a positive step towards narrowing the gender pay gap.

Indeed much progress has been made towards equality for women and here in Wales great strides have been made and the level of activity around equal pay in Wales has increased substantially over the last few years.

However, there is still work to be done before the society of equal opportunity, with regard to pay, is achieved and for the meantime for aggrieved women who are being paid less than their male counterparts sometimes litigation is the only answer. Indeed a number of cases on the issue have attracted media attention of late and have had a significant impression on pay equality.

One particularly important case is that of Professor Pam Enderby, a speech therapist claiming equal value with male clinical psychologists and pharmacists. Her claim was one of a number of test cases taken by speech therapists and although a struggle to establish the validity of their claims, taking 11 years to reach a conclusion, the case led to significant changes in the way the NHS operated its pay grading structures.

This case shows that women can successfully pursue claims through theEmployment Tribunal system and get back pay for up to six years. In addition, the Government has introduced a power for female workers, who feel their pay is less than that of their male counterpart, to serve a questionnaire on their employer seeking information to confirm or dispel their concerns.

This is a positive weapon for potential claimants in such cases as it can provide solid evidence of a situation of inequality and lead to a situation being addressed at an early stage before resorting to litigation.

In light of the publicity concerning Wimbledon's prize money pay gap it appears that this hot topic is reaching boiling point. While Venus Williams, the 2005 champion, above, may grunt the loudest when it comes to voicing her opinions about equal pay there is evidence that the gender pay gap is slowly closing. In particular, improvement is on the cards by way of the Gender Equality Duty which comes into force in 2007.

This is being heralded as the most significant change in gender equality legislation in 30 years and will require public bodies to eliminate sex discrimination and promote equality throughout their services, policies, employment and recruitment practices.

If this duty is true to its words, women across the country will all be serving aces across court.

Sarah Forster is associate partner and head of employment law at Welsh law firm Leo Abse & Cohen